Friday, August 9, 2013

Say what? How social media platforms affect what you say ... and how you say it.

"Save it for the judge, kid."

You
already know that your audience influences what you say and how you say
it when you’re telling a story. (That googly-eyed baby talk that
entertains your girlfriend will get you tazed if you use it on a cop.)

But did you know that where
you tell your story is just as important as whom* you’re telling it
to?** Think about how the following venues affect what you say and how
you say it:

VENUE: Sunday Mass
APPROACH:
Fidgety whispering about how bored you are, accompanied by crude
illustrations drawn with those bowling-alley pencils on the back of the
church bulletin.

VENUE: Elevator
APPROACH: Vapid comments about the weather directed to the top of your shoes.

VENUE: Men’s room
APPROACH: There is no approach. The first rule of “Men’s Room” is you DO NOT talk in the men’s room.

The same is true with social media venues. You wouldn’t post a video of a shark-cat riding a Roomba on LinkedIn would you? Of course not. Different venues require different approaches.
To help you navigate the rocky waters of social-media etiquette, the good folks at My Clever Agency created an infographic to help you “Create The Perfect Pinterest, Google+, Facebook & Twitter posts.”***

Check it out.

*Full
disclosure: I don’t often use “whom,” even when I know I should. Just
as I don’t say, “It is I,” when asked “who is it?” But my sister-in-law
occasionally reads these posts, and she’s a stickler for proper grammar,
so I figured I’d go all highfalutin for her this one time.